Page 28 - Design for Environment A Guide to Sustainable Product Development

Intr oduction 7

The practice of DFE has spread quickly in today’s business envi-
ronment, as major firms have recognized the importance of environ-
mental and social responsibility to their long-term success. Even the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has established a DFE program
to encourage reduction of pollution at the source (see Chapter 3). The
company case studies in Part 3 of this book illustrate how DFE pro-
vides competitive advantage by reducing the costs of production
and waste management, driving product innovation, speeding time
to market, and attracting new customers. The business benefits of DFE
are summarized in Figure 1.2, and are further described in Chapter 4.

Example Here is a recent example of DFE applied to sustainable packaging:
Sam’s Club redesigned its milk jugs with a new cubical shape that is easier to
transport. The company estimates that this kind of shipping has cut labor by
50% and water use for cleaning by 60 to 70%. More gallons fit on a truck and in
Sam’s Club coolers, and no empty crates need to be picked up, reducing trips
to each Sam’s Club store to two a week from five—a substantial fuel savings.
Also, Sam’s Club can now store 224 gallons of milk in its coolers in the same
space that used to hold 80. The only drawback was that consumers had a hard
time getting used to pouring milk from the new jugs. However, the company
was able to pass on savings of 10 to 20 cents per gallon to the consumer.

DFE originated in the early 1990s due to the convergence of
several driving forces that made global manufacturers more aware
of the environmental implications of their product and process de -
signs. For one thing, consumers were becoming increasingly con-
cerned about the environmental “friendliness” of the products that
they purchase. The International Organization for Standardization
(ISO) was developing the 14000 series of standards for environmental

FIGURE 1.2 Benefi ts of Design for Environment.